"It's Midnight" / "Promised Land" was released on September 27, 1974. On October 26th "It's Midnight" entered the "Hot Country Singles Chart", had a run of 14 weeks and peaked at number 9. On the same day it was also included on the "Easy Listening Chart", where it stayed for 11 weeks and reached number 8. The radio stations preferred "Promised Land", just like the audience and the (at the time) allmighty Billboard Magazine. Therefore it was the Chuck Berry classic that was listed on the "Hot 100". The track had a run of 13 weeks and peaked at number 14. In Great Britain "Promised Land" became a top 10 hit and in Asia the single also sold well. In total 2 million copies were sold, which translates to 300 million paid streams according to the RIAA. Commercially this was the king's biggest success since "Steamroller Blues" / "Fool" from the previous year. In the present "Promised Land" belongs to the upper 10% of the most streamed Presley songs on Spotify and accumulates around 30 million streams. However, "It's Midnight" wasn't listened to more than 2.1 million times.

The cover was designed with a photo from May 1974. Because of the commercial success and the popularity of "Promised Land" RCA would name Elvis' next album after the song and even copy the artwork of the single.

Of course the single cannot be found on the streaming platforms. But both songs are available on the album "Promised Land" (1975).

Elvis recorded the song by Billy Ed Wheeler and Jerry Chesnut on December 10, 1973. He workded hard and needed 19 attempts before the performance sounded the way he wanted. On the same day the king also recorded harmony vocals, strings were added on January 10, 1974. Elvis sings about his loneliness in the night in an absolute believable way and masters the soft parts as well as the operatic ones. 

The king recorded "Promised Land" on December 15, 1973 within six takes. The track was enhanced with a harmony vocal by Elvis, an echo effect, an organ (overdubbed on January 2, 1974) and a tambourine (overdubbed on January 15, 1974). In the end the king didn't like the result and had his harmony vocal, the echo and the organ removed. Elvis performed the song faster than Chuck and left out a verse. I like the king's cover version much better. It has more drive, James Burton shines on his electric guitar and Per-Erik Hallin adds a funky clavinet. Elvis obviously has fun, too. To me "Promised Land" is one of the king's best recording of the 1970s.